After months of increasing speculation, Damian Lillard issued a trade request to the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, setting the table for what could be the most significant deal of the offseason.
The Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets have emerged in rumors as potential destinations for Lillard, who is seeking his first championship and has reached the conference finals just once in his career. Miami’s NBA Finals loss to the Denver Nuggets last month revealed a need for more backcourt scoring and star power, while Brooklyn could be looking to bolster a new-look core after trading away Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden over the past 18 months.
From an asset perspective, the Nets are likely better positioned to trade for Lillard than the Heat given their bounty of future draft picks. However, Miami is Lillard’s top preference and it might give him theLillard inked a four-year, $176 million contract extension last summer that runs through the 2026-27 season, his age-36 campaign.
Named to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team in 2022, Lillard stands as Portland’s all-time leading scorer with 19,376 points across his 11-year career, and ranks third among active players in three-pointers behind Stephen Curry and Harden. The Weber State product averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game last season, and he poured in a career-high 71 points in a Feb. 26 win over the Houston Rockets.
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